If you own a Onewheel electric skateboard, you should stop using it immediately.
The company behind Onewheel, Future Motion, announced a voluntary recall in cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Remedies may include a firmware update or a small store credit.
Between 2019 and 2021, Future Motion received dozens of reports detailing injuries, including brain injury, concussion, paralysis, upper-body fractures, lower-body fractures, ligament damage, and at least four deaths from head trauma. In at least three of those cases, the rider wasn't wearing a helmet. According to the recall, the skateboard can stop balancing the rider if limits are exceeded, which can lead to crash hazards that may cause death.
As such, Future Motion recalled all 300,000 Onewheel skateboards effective immediately. That doesn't mean sending your Onewheel back, however. If you own the Onewheel GT, Onewheel Pint X, Onewheel Pint, or Onewheel+ XR, Future Motion will soon release a firmware update to remedy the problem. You'll need to download the latest version of the Onewheel app and use that to install the firmware when it's available.
The new firmware will bring along a new alert feature dubbed Haptic Buzz. It will provide both audible and tactile feedback when the skateboard detects the rider is exceeding its safe limits, the battery is low, or any other error state that might lead to a crash.
However, if you own the Original Onewheel or Onewheel+ model, you won't get a firmware update. Instead, Future Motion will provide a $100 store credit toward purchasing a new OneWheel model. Onewheel skateboards typically retail between $1,050 and $2,200. The recall notice didn't specify how to dispose of the Onewheel skateboards not eligible for an update.
The recall comes after the CPSC first warned consumers to stop using the Onewheel in November. The agency pushed for a recall at the time, but Future Motion initially refused.
